Wireless personal communication devices such as cellphones, PDAs and similar devices are an integral part of the communications infrastructure in every industrialized country today. Increasing popularity of such devices coupled with lower cost, along with increasing service coverage areas is driving growth in more remote locales as well. Conventional cellphone technology relied on an established infrastructure providing a sufficient number of “cells”, or antennas, in a particular geographic area to support the cellphone subscribers in the area. Underlying the wireless antennas providing the wireless link to the end-user devices, however, is a backbone communications network including an evolution of various technologies, such as the conventional wired public switched telephone network (PSTN), leased lines, satellite, and microwave carriers, to name several.
As cellphone popularity increases, industry growth expands into areas where economic and/or geographic restrictions had formerly presented feasibility barriers. As the subscriber base rises and device costs decrease, cellular growth emerges in remote areas where geographic separation formerly prevented expansion. In particular, satellite communications may be employed to extend the communications backbone into geographies where other infrastructure mediums (i.e. wired networks) are non-existent or unreliable. Therefore, substantial cellphone growth may be pursued in remote areas formerly devoid of a communications backbone to support wireless devices. In contrast, wireless device usage is approaching saturation in many established markets, favoring growth via enhanced services and features, rather then new device deployment.